How to Bird

Hi all,

I am a novice backyard birder. I bought a nice pair of binoculars for a camping trip and it has opened up a world of birding to me. I've since acquired a couple different kinds of feeders (it started as a birdhouse by the window for my cat) and am considering buying a field guide and traveling some distance to see birds that aren't so local to me.

My lifer list is 7 species right now.

I just want to know how you guys do it. I use Merlin to identify birds by sound and learn about them while I do that, but there's so many different kinds of birds.

How do you identify the kind of raptor flying so high in the sky above? They always look black and don't seem to call up there. And how do you track a bird by sound alone? According to Merlin, there is a yellow billed cuckoo in my yard that I'd love to lay eyes on to add to my list. I narrowed it down to a couple trees but never spotted it, and I know they're shy and probably camouflaged, but I can't find the cardinals in the trees either unless I watch it take off or land! And how long does it take you to ID a bird? Can you do it to the little guys that look like they could be anything in flight? I know that I should look for color, wing and tail feather shape, distinctive margings, and take a picture if I can but that's so much in so little time if they're flying!! And at what distance does it become hard to ID a bird? How intuitive is it really? Because I've definitely seen more than 7 species of bird but I dont know what they are.

I have 8x42 Nature DX Celestron binoculars, and a subpar cell phone camera. Please, I need knowledge.